The ongoing pandemic coupled with a climate emergency in BC is a lot to take in. It is sad seeing neighbours experiencing severe flooding, mudslides, and highway closures. As a result of so much disruption in our lives, many of us have become chronically tired and in need of relief and rest. At the same time it has been heartening to see images and hear stories of neighbours helping neighbours during this time. Emergency crews and everyday people including Sikhs have delivered food to trapped motorists. Road crews and military personnel have been working to liberate and bolster communities. These are among the best examples of people living out love of neighbour. These are acts that lead to mutual flourishing in the midst of crisis. Discovering that while we are weary, collectively we become resilient when we pool resources and seek collective solutions to our problems.
By contrast a recent troubling story is one that leads us away from mutual flourishing. With implicit government support, members of the RCMP have led coordinated raids and arrests of Wet’suwet’en people on their unceded territories, Indigenous allies including the Gitxsan people, and even two journalists covering the story. Graphic images of militarized officers with fatigues, sniper rifles, dogs, descending upon a small, unarmed group of Indigenous people and journalists is deeply concerning. The fact this took place during a province-wide crisis is inexplicable. These resources could have been shifted to emergency relief, but instead we hear that our province chooses to wage war with Indigenous people, defending their land and water.
A privately owned pipeline is being built with the support of provincial and federal governments. Our governments continue pitting Indigenous groups against one another, for example pointing to divisions between hereditary and elected chiefs. This is a divide and conquer tactic as old as the Indian Act, which political leaders continue to exploit. They claim to advance the work of reconciliation, while perpetuating colonial violence. Their actions may be consistent with BC’s history of putting the interests of private capital and government ahead of Indigenous people, but we can choose differently. As settlers and residents of BC we can demand better, knowing these acts of violence against Indigenous people, the land, and the water are being done on our behalf.
Indigenous people have every right to mistrust churches, given the history of residential schools. It is the time to be having hard conversations within church communities, dismantling systems of oppression and systemic racism. Restoring trust will take time and at the end of the day people will look at our actions. Now is the time to imagine and effect a radical turning within the Christian tradition. We can witness to and actively participate in ways the divine bends the arc towards justice and grace.
We hear Indigenous people and folks on the margins talking about a desire for resurgence. A desire to find strength within themselves, to have their agency and access to resources restored. While it is not our job to be at the centre of this healing and awakening, we can stand alongside and in support of Indigenous water and land defenders.
Let us create spaces in which fragmented selves are made whole, where art, music, and culture flourish. Spaces where as settlers and Indigenous folks we discover mutual flourishing. Only when people’s greatest needs are addressed, can everyone find rest and health.
Lyndon Sayers is co-pastor at Lutheran Church of the Cross, Victoria.
You can read more articles on our interfaith blog, Spiritually Speaking, HERE /blogs/spiritually-speaking
This article was published in the print edition of the sa国际传媒 on Saturday, December 11th 2021
